newton's blog

2010 saw our largest class of scholarship graduates ever - 13 students completed their coursework in June, and 6 in November. They are very, very grateful for the funds from the North that made this possible. I thought you would like to see a little more of what these young people have accomplished and are aiming at. Please enjoy these photographs and thumbnail sketches of 4 of them.

Juan José Choque Quispe, Dentistry. Juan was part of a team that put together a health and hygiene education program for impoverished schools.

When an FWCC veteran heard that a young Bolivian Friend was visiting the 2009 sessions of New England Yearly Meeting, her first reaction was to regret that NEYM did not have translators in place. But Rubén Hilare did not need translators, neither for conversations nor for his presentation at an interest group. All went smoothly in English, and 16 Friends came to learn more about Bolivia on an evening when there were a dozen simultaneous interest groups.

Dear Friends,
You have probably heard about the mutual expulsion of ambassadors, a massacre in a small town, martial law in Pando, and the US evacuating Peace Corps workers and other US citizens from Bolivia. So you know about the turmoil and trouble Bolivia is experiencing. But headlines obscure a great deal, so I want to say a bit about how all this affects BQEF.

By the time you read this, Alicia Lucasi and Rubén Hilari, two young Bolivian Quaker teachers, will be on their way to the US for face-to-face interaction with US Friends and with Quaker education in the US.